FIRST OFF..this is a cold winter night,not much else to do project.REAL modern propane heaters that you could use in your car can be found just by a quick web web search.in a minute or two i found several from the local big box store that would be much better and safer than my home made set up.
having said that this is what i came up with.



OH NO--i took my canoe hauling car that i only use in the summer way out into the wilderness out of cell phone range and skidded into the ditch.it will be tomorrow before anyone comes along!!..



the temp is only 9F and i'm just wearing a light jacket and jeans because i thought this could never happen.



lucky for me before i left i had a look thru my stove collection for something i could use as a car heater.on the right is a Coleman 502 with a drum heater over the burner.i used this years ago when i went ice fishing.using gas as a fuel seemed to have a spill and fire danger so over on the left is a propane burner that a spare drum heater fits on.



if i make a couple small cuts so it snugs down over the pot holder.

well here i am back at the stuck car and the propane heater is down on the floor inside a bucket to help keep it up right should i bump into it.



a cooking pot full of snow will provide some hot water to make the cocoa i have along with a cup and spoon.



eleven minutes pass by and the car is above zero!




i was concerned about the heat on the dashboard and it is sort of hot--note to self--add a heat shield of some sort.



twenty minutes into it the inside at the front seat is 50F!!

with the back window cracked a bit and the stove turned way down i can wait it out until morning.



well whats this!!!..minutes later with the car warmed up a winter camper who was frozen out up on Pine Lake is on his way home comes by--i get out and wave him down--adventure over--

Interesting. Next time, bring a Carbon Monoxide alarm with you to see if you have to make any adjustments to stay within tolerance for ventilation.

Kudos for both the effort and the report!

Good post.

I don't think I'd go to sleep with that setup running (actually that applies to anything other than candles).

The beauty of this rig is that you can shut down and relight on demand. Used only when needed, a 1-lb. propane cylinder will last quite a long time.

I was thinking about heat shields too, contemplating a test for my Dietz lantern. The easiest thing to pack would be heavy duty aluminum foil. A couple of layers of that would go a long way in protecting the dash and the seat from heat.

Doug: If you have a RONA or Home Depot in your AO, they both sell rolls of thin aluminum flashing for a very reasonable cost.

Typically the rolls are about 9-15 inches wide and I cannot recall how many feet (lots though). The flashing is very malleable, bendable etc and works perfectly for heat shields etc. I use a small piece of the flashing that wraps around and protects my MSR Pocket Rocket stove from wind.

A foot long section of this flashing kept rolled up or kept flat in a backpack/ PSK would also make an expedient survival cup/bowl/pot etc with minimal work.

Kudos on the illustrated scenario and stove demo!

50 degrees sounds a heckuva lot better than 9 degrees.

Doug..yup,no way i would go to sleep with that going..
i would get into all the winter clothes i had along!!


in the WP bag i keep in the trunk,which i can get to from inside the car by dropping the back seat,i have--
a mummy bag--poly filled booties--heavy wool pants--my old but still in good shape goose down parka--wool lined gauntlet mitts--
poly full face mask and a egg crate style camping mattress that i would put on the car seat...you know in the end you just might want to pack a tent and other winter camping gear along with some good long johns and camp outside the car until help came!

Awesome Work!2-Thumbs Up on Your Experiment & Conclusion Thereof!Maybe a Jig set-up on a piece of Plywood,to hold the canister& a hinge on 1 side,& another thin piece of plywood the heighth of the heater,To make an L-shape,that is lined on the inside with Thermal ply,facing the interior of the Car.That could keep the Dash plastic safe & Radiate the heat,where it's needed possibly?Darn Good Work,CHEERS!

Rich--and others..there is no end to what you could do to a home made set up like this.the big box heaters are a few hundred bucks for a good one and if you don't really expect to be someplace where survival in your ditched car is a real issue i would assume any camp stove,with proper venting--so on-- would work.in this test i did not cut off the back seat area with a blanket and that would have kept the drivers seat warmer faster.what i did notice was that the car had cold spots,the floor was cold and stayed that way while i was out.



this camping fan/light was a secret Santa gift at work many years ago and i never had a use for it but to move the warm air around in the car it would work fine.

I hate to rain on the parade, but the combination of monoxide poisoning and fire trap this contraption presents is a stunningly bad idea, in my opinion. Cracking the window a bit wouldn't do it. If you were lucky, you'd be unconscious or dead before the flames consumed you.

In my foolish younger years I once slept in a van that had a propane lantern going for a little heat. I'm figuring it burns a lot cleaner and puts of less volume of exhaust than that burner. I cracked the window an inch or two for safety. In the morning I was downright woozy and ill, and it took me a few days before I started feeling somewhat normal again, or perhaps just got used to living with a good percentage of my brain cells missing.

I have a camper with a legitimate propane furnace, with its combustion vented outside the camper. There is still a CO detector, and I'm still slightly nervous with the thing running while I sleep.

Carbon monoxide is scary, dangerous, sneaky stuff. Even if it doesn't kill you, it can permanently disable you. It can sneak up on you, gradually putting you to sleep without you knowing it.

I appreciate your interest in finding a working solution, and am not trying to give you a hard time about it. I would just hate to read about you having a tragic accident.

David

Oh, Man. I just saw Art's "Poison in the Night" link.

big m..garly's post about a CO alarm was well taken,i would never leave something like that running while i was sleeping,that's what the winter gear is for.being a stove collector i have seen several tests done of different camp stoves run in tents for heating and cooking and am well aware of the danger.i was thinking of using a kerosene burning stove.kero is used for indoor heating and the stoves were used for cooking all over Europe before town gas.many of my fellow "stovies" still cook indoors on their old Primus stoves as part of the hobby with no ill effects.having said that your post is well taken and i would like to find or borrow a good CO testing meter to see just what i was dealing with in what was a "cold nite,lets try this out" sort of thing.just as an aside a buddy who worked in Canada tells me story's of guys who set fire to the spare tire in order to make it thru the nite after ditching the car on the way back from town...and--the Coleman 502 with the heat drum i used ice fishing,that was just inside a wood crate i sat on behind a windbreak.

Stove/fire/ outside, boil water, hot water bottle inside

Heck, you could even carry a few bricks/tiles and heat those instead of water, outside of course.

Carbon monoxide poisoning from Sterno. [Can Med Assoc J. 1978] - PubMed Result
You've replicated this exact scenario.
All that is required is that you supply a little too much fuel, just a slight twist of the knob, and you're making so much CO, two breaths and goodbye

The space is just too small for open flame like that

In addition to the major concerns about CO there is also the minor combustion product condensation issue.

Once upon a time I set a radiant propane heater to running in the rear uninsulated camping box of my unimog while I was hanging out by the fire talking with the guys.

While the box was warmer than it would have been, there was an enormous amount of condensation from the combustion water vapor running down the walls of the box. The heater was shutoff for the night and there was plenty of ventilation due to seal leakage for sleeping. But the humidity in the box was really high - not the best for comfort.

In this case you may wind up with the headliner of the car being softened and coming down from the ceiling over time. Or you'll just get a huge case of inboard rust in the interior.

A minor consideration compared to being dead. But yet another reason this isn't such a good idea.

I liked the "what if" scenario and I realize the real dangers of Carbon Monoxide poisoning in a confined space, but what if you used a larger version of the alcohol stove? You'd have to make it real stable to keep from spilling/sloshing out. Would you still have the problem with CO poisoning if your burning denatured alcohol?

Yes. Any incomplete combustion will produce loads of CO.

Canoedogs - I like your setup. But then again, I'm a stove fanatic, and fully aware of the CO poisoning in poor ventilated setups. It is good advice to maintain a good distance between the flame and the cool cocking pot - cooling the flame by putting a can of snow inside it is an excellent way to produce lots of CO. There are a lot of camping stoves that could benefit from raising the pot a centimeter or two.


I am guessing the reason for the "box heater" setup is to have some sort of physical boundary between the upholstery of the car and the naked flame - or is there any other reasons for it? A naked flame would heat the car just as well or better, but could be considered somewhat stressful in that setup.


Any tips for the most important aspects of the design or use of box heaters? Although I'm an old stove fanatic, box heaters are new territory for me.

I actually bought one of these a few years back:

http://www.zodi.com/Consumer/zodihotvent.html

It's a great concept, and worked moderately well. The propane cylinder seemed to freeze up a bit or something in really cold weather, which appeared to reduce its output. I also tried running it off a big 20 lb tank, which IIRC worked better. I'll have to dig it out and fiddle with it a bit more.

In my quest to heat vehicles/tents/etc, it is the only thing I found that I felt comfortable with, because of its outdoor combustion and venting.

David

The Zodi is clever, but having to rely on 12v for the fan is likely to be a problem quickly.

Harmless..the box,really a can,was made for the Coleman 503 so it could be used as a heater.it has holes around the top and i assume the Coleman company thought this out and made it so it worked efficiently.




keeping the open flame from a roaring stove away from gear in a ice fishing shack and supplying a heat sink,plus the cans flat top gets hot enough to cook on makes this a neat but obsolete gizmo.
i have no idea why other more modern stoves don't have something like this,maybe there were too many of those CO problems--



this heater which is made to go onto a camp stove is an example of a proper heater.the stove runs on kerosene and all the springs and screens inside the glass case promote a clean burn.made by the Purple Stove Company in Japan for home and camp use..they use kero burners widely in Japan as they don't need central heating and some burners have a chime that sounds every three hours or so as a reminder to open windows and let any fumes out----for me this is more of collectors item and not something i would keep outside in my cars trunk.

I have never heard of this box heater before.

It appears from Canoedog's photo that it is just a hollow unit (think coffee can) with a holes, slots in the base to anchor it and a bail handle. The 'can' absorbs heat from the open flame and radiates it outward, or the top can be used for cooking.

Is this a reasonable description?

Sue

p.s. I am looking at 'box heater' at eBay. What does 'catalytic' mean in this sense? What does it do?

Sue the "stovie's" name for it is Drum Heater.like you said it's just a coffee can shaped,but made from steel, drum that was made to fit over the old Coleman 503 stove that i have in one of the first photos.i have never seen it as an accessory on any other Coleman,or other stove.as a heat sink it throws out a lot of heat and you don't have a open flame to worry about,just melting your poly wind pants if you brush into it.

I wonder how well an MSR Reactor would work in this situation.

It would still have that CO problem in an enclosed space.

cookies are wonderful..i did a search for car heaters on Google and now i'm getting pop-up adds from JC Whitney while i'm looking at survival stuff on Youtube..